A B S T R A C TThe kinetics of short crack growth has been studied in austenitic-ferritic 2205 duplex stainless steel. Smooth cylindrical specimens and specimens with shallow notch were subjected to constant plastic strain amplitude loading. The crack growth was studied in notched specimens. The notch area has been mechanically and electrolytically polished to facilitate the observation of crack initiation and growth. The initiated cracks were observed in an SEM (scanning electron microscope). The crack growth was studied using long distance QUESTAR optical microscope equipped with high-resolution camera. In constant plastic strain amplitude loading the microcracks were initiated and their growth kinetics has been studied. The characteristic features of the crack growth at different plastic strain amplitudes were recorded. Two approaches to analyse the crack growth rates were adopted. The comparison of the prediction of the fatigue life using the plastic-strain-dependent crack growth rate was compared with Manson-Coffin law and the relation between parameters of this law and parameters of the short crack growth law were established. a = crack length a f = crack length at the end of the fatigue life a i = extrapolated crack length to zero cycle c = fatigue ductility exponent d = exponent of the exponential crack growth law G(n ) = function of the exponent of the cyclic stress-strain curve k g = crack growth coefficient k g0 = parameter of the exponential crack growth law K a = stress intensity amplitude n = the exponent of the cyclic stress-strain curve N = number of cycles N f = number of cycles to fracture N i = number of cycles to crack initiation N g = number of cycles to propagate a crack v 0 = reference crack growth rate ε ap = plastic strain amplitude ε f = fatigue ductility coefficient γ = exponent of the crack growth rate law σ a = stress amplitude J = range of J-integral J 0 = parameter of the crack growth rate law Correspondence: J. Polák.